Keg King Sanitiser Taste?

[NewtownClown]

Pm Sent

 

[Ross]

I have a bottle of both (thank you for the sample Kee) & from a visual/odour perspective they are quite different.
The Keg king sanitiser appears less viscous, is paler in colour & has a sweet soapy/plasticy aroma, whereas the Starsan has a more solventy aroma. Shaking the container causes a mass of fine foam in the Keg king product & just a few bubbles in the Starsan, so obviously it is not a perfect copy.
This is not a knock at Keg Kings sanitiser, it may well be just as effective, maybe even more so, but as a retailler or home user there is no real way of comparing each products effectiveness. So at this stage I will continue to stock & use the Five Star products which are from a Company at the leading edge of cleaning & sanitising research & who's owner is the most informed expert on the subject I've ever met.

For anyone that's not aware, we are currently the importer/distributor of Five Star products, so yes we do have a business interest. That said, we continue to look for new & better products & would have no hesitation in changing if for the better.

Cheers
Ross
CraftBrewer

 

[JDW81]

PM Sent,

I'll give it a go and happily report back.

Thanks Kee, it is very encouraging to see retailers/distributors engaging with their customers.

 

[Edgebrew]

Sorry to revive an old thread.

Keg King is advertising their sanitiser now as "New Formula"? Has anyone used this? I think they changed it sometime in January.

 

[QldKev]

Sorry to revive an old thread.

Keg King is advertising their sanitiser now as "New Formula"? Has anyone used this? I think they changed it sometime in January.

The above review by Ross was the new formula.

 

[rangie89]

Hi There,

I bought some of this stuff just last week, Not seeing this thread until I come back from making the purchase.

Anyway, it is the new formula I have, and I have not tired the old formula.

I washed some bottles just the other day, soaked then in KK sanitizer, drained, by turning upside down and giving a small shake.

I then waited a few minutes for the left over bubble to reduce, then repeated the turn and shake.

I then filled a bottle with water and drank it.

I can not detect any residual taste.

I even went as far as to take a mouthful of sanitizer out of the 2 litre solution, I was using. To be honest, it doesn't have a taste, more a sensation of alkalinity in your mouth, if that make sense

I haven't bottled any beer as yet, but I reckon this suggests to be so far so good.

 

[djar007]

I even went as far as to take a mouthful of sanitizer out of the 2 litre solution

Now thats a taste test. Bet you were blowing bubbles for a few days, if you know what I mean.

 

[QldKev]

Now thats a taste test. Bet you were blowing bubbles for a few days, if you know what I mean.

like Michael Jackson did

 

[iralosavic]

Hey Guys,

One of our customers who is a member on AHB came into our Springvale store and said that I should put up a post regarding the sanitiser so here it is.

The phosphoric sanitiser that we used to sell was a product that was made by Cleantech. Since Cleantech was purchased out by the American company Ecolab we have found that they have been a bit difficult to deal with and when we tried to engage them with regards to the sanitiser and why we had a couple customers that could taste the product we found them to be fairly non-responsive and very difficult to get a straight answer out of. For that reason we have recently changed suppliers and now have found a better chemical blending and supply company in locally in Sunshine (Victoria) to make sanitiser for us.

I know that Star San is a product that is very popular in America with a lot of brand recognition. With that said, I don't see the any value in importing a product that can be quite easily made in Australia. I did have a conversation with Jon Herskovitz from Five Star Chemicals requesting him to blend the Five Star Products in Australia at the 2012 ANHC conference however he did not seem interested in manufacturing the products locally because he thought that the scale of the Australian market was too small. So we decided to make our own type of sanitiser in Australia and seeing as a lot of home brewers like Star San we decided to model the product on Star San.

Our new sanitiser (which we have started to sell from 7th Jan 2012 onward and on the label says "New Formula") uses the same active ingredients as Star San in the same concentration as Star San. It has the same PH as Star San and also is used in the same way as Star San and has the same killing potential as Star San and is made with the same high foaming surfactant. Using the Star San product and the phosphoric sanitiser that we have locally blended we cannot tell the difference between the two. We have the sanitiser in 2 pack sizes of 350ml and 20Litre. The 20L pack size is extremely good value but you would have to have a brewery to warrant puchasing this amount as you only require 1.5ml/L concentration.

If anyone in the past has had ANY ISSUE WHATSOEVER with our old sanitiser at all we would be more than happy to upgrade you onto the new sanitiser for FREE.

If any of you guys out there already have the Star San product and would like to demo our phosphoric sanitiser to compare the two products I will give you a FREE bottle of sanitiser to compare. I only put one condition on this though, that being you need to report back to this forum with the results. I will only giving away 10 free sanitisers so hopefully at least a couple of the 10 free that we give away will take the time to post back on the forum.

If any of you guys have any specific questions at all please do not hesitate to contact me back on 03 90111698

Regards,

Kee

If you've got any more samples ill give you my feedback, kee. I have practically abandoned the original sanitiser since getting starsan to be honest.

 

[timmi9191]

I use KK sanitiser, with no issues at all. Mix at recommended ratio and use in a spray bottle. No off tastes or aromas.

Ps no affiliation, discount or freebie...

 

[Truman42]

Must admit Ive been using the KK sanitiser for the past 5 brews I've done and haven't noticed any off tastes or aromas at all either. It does seem to be higher foaming than defender but I find when bottling the foam rises up and out of the bottle anyway. But I also think the foaming could have something to do with me always adding slightly too much when mixing it.

But Im certainly happy to keep using it.

P.S. Mine was a freebie.

 

[stakka82]

I had a plastic/cleaner smell in my beers for months, which was sometimes bad enough to actually taste it too. It took me ages to figure out that it was the kk sanitizer. This was using the 'old' formula. I would be interested in trying some of the new formula also, but certainly not willing to pay to test it, so count me in if the offer still stands.

Certainly willing to post honest feedback given the chance.

 

[NewtownClown]

Tried the new. Received a free sample to review and am ashamed to say I am yet to post my results.

Have used it exclusively on 11 brews. No infection.

My observations

Side by side, undiluted, there is a slight difference in odour. The closest I could compare it to is a very, very subtle impression of Tarzan's grip. When diluted, there is no noticeable difference. have had a triangular blind taste test (diluted) with a mate, neither could pick any difference. Viscosity is slightly different and KK is a little lighter in colour.

KK sanitiser foams up and clings to the surface like starsan..

In fact, until I saw this topic revived, I had not given another thought to which sanitiserI I have been using. I passed some on some to Fletcher a while ago and haven't heard of him getting an infection either, or complaining about any odour\taste.

Previous concerns appear to be more about aroma/taste than effectiveness but I will do a rough "sanitation test". This weekend I will treat two plastic containers with both sanitisers, fill with wort, cap and leave in a warm place and observe.

 

[JaseH]

I was one of the original posters that had a batch of beer tainted by the old KK sanitiser. I replaced it at the time with Star San for sanitising my bottles and fermenting gear, I use the remaining KK sanitiser for sanitising my brew rig lines and fittings. Glad to hear they have sorted the problem - looking forward to grabbing a bottle when my Star San runs out!

 

[gsouth82]

I think I'll also grab a bottle next time I'm at KK. I gave up on the 'old' formula after it left a bad taste in 2 of my beers. Been using Defender since but KK is much more convenient for me. Good on them for getting things sorted.

 

[JDW81]

I received a free bottle of the new KK sanitiser a few months ago and said I would give an update when I'd used it (took a while to finish my current bottle of starsan).

My main observation is that it foams like a rabid dog, but at least that lets you know you've got good coverage.

I used it in my cube before filling and then to sanitise bottles for them same brew. Used it again last night, and am expecting the same outcome.

Aside from having to manage the foam problem in my bottle washer it was fine.

I've noticed no adverse tastes from using it and will happily use it until it runs out. I'll go back to starsan after that, as I can get that from my LHBS (keg king is 50+ km from me).

Does it work? Yes.
Does it leave a funky taste? No.
Is it as good as starsan? I'm not getting into that argument.

JD

 

[Edgebrew]

Thanks for the update. I get no foam with mine. Is that the old formula?

 

[JDW81]

Nope, the new one. Foams like a bastard.

 

[fletcher]

Tried the new. Received a free sample to review and am ashamed to say I am yet to post my results.

Have used it exclusively on 11 brews. No infection.

My observations

Side by side, undiluted, there is a slight difference in odour. The closest I could compare it to is a very, very subtle impression of Tarzan's grip. When diluted, there is no noticeable difference. have had a triangular blind taste test (diluted) with a mate, neither could pick any difference. Viscosity is slightly different and KK is a little lighter in colour.

KK sanitiser foams up and clings to the surface like starsan..

In fact, until I saw this topic revived, I had not given another thought to which sanitiserI I have been using. I passed some on some to Fletcher a while ago and haven't heard of him getting an infection either, or complaining about any odour\taste.

Previous concerns appear to be more about aroma/taste than effectiveness but I will do a rough "sanitation test". This weekend I will treat two plastic containers with both sanitisers, fill with wort, cap and leave in a warm place and observe.

as yet i haven't had any infections or can tell any specific tastes on what you gave me mate. having said that, my palate isn't as refined as many on here i would say. any 'soapy' taste however is often noticeable to anyone, and i've hd nothing like that since using the KK stuff. seems okay to me.